Virtual reality may be safe, viable for treatment of neck, low back pain
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Key takeaways:
- Virtual reality exercise therapy may be a safe and viable treatment method for neck and low back pain.
- Results showed virtual reality therapy reduced disability in both patients with neck and low back pain.
Published results showed virtual reality exercise therapy may be a safe and viable treatment delivery method for patients with low back pain and/or neck pain.
“The findings suggest that there were no side effects, adverse or serious adverse events, and some of the participants reported and software-generated outcomes were associated with significant improvement,” Eran Orr, founder and CEO of XRHealth, and colleagues wrote in the study. “Most notably in this population, the interventions were associated with significant improvements for the modified Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Index and the Neck Disability Index.”
Orr and colleagues retrospectively collected patient outcome measures, including the modified Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Index and the Neck Disability Index, among 82 patients who received exercise therapy via virtual reality (VR) for the treatment of low back pain and/or neck pain between July 2020 and May 2022.
Researchers found no association between adverse events or side effects with VR exercise therapy. Results also showed an association between VR exercise therapy and significant reductions in disability from neck pain disorders and non-specific low back pain.
“These data suggest that although not a panacea, exercise therapy is safe, as well as practical, and is associated with other health benefits,” Orr and colleagues wrote in the study. “It is also a relatively low-cost intervention, which would contribute to health care sustainability.”
The researchers added, “As no exercise program has demonstrated definitive superiority and an increasing amount of care for these conditions is being delivered remotely, investigating the role of VR delivered remotely in the metaverse may ensure more efficient use of health resources than providing care in traditional brick-and-mortar establishments.”
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Orr E, et al. Arch Physiother. 2023;doi:10.1186/s40945-023-00163-8.
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